Senate stalls rights nominee

Published 4:00 am, Friday, November 14, 1997

WASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee all but killed President Clinton's nomination for civil rights chief, amid furious debate over the fate of affirmative action.

"We're tired of preferring one group over another, of preferring groups over individuals," said committee chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, announcing Thursday that Bill Lann Lee's nomination would be sent back to the White House.

Hatch acted after Democrats delayed a final committee vote that most likely would have killed the nomination outright Thursday on a 9-9 deadlock.

"How many Americans really believe that the playing field is fair for women and minorities in this country today?" asked Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

President Trump addresses nation after mass shooting at Florida SchoolWhite House

Democrats said they will look for ways to submit Lee's name to the full Senate. If they fail, as Republicans expect, the White House must decide whether to renominate Lee when the Senate reconvenes next year or look for another candidate for assistant attorney general in charge of the civil rights division.

White House spokesman Mike McCurry declined to speculate on the possibility of another candidate.

"Our options are to see what we can do to try to move (the Lee nomination) to the floor, and there are ways under Senate rules that they might be able to do that," McCurry said. "We're trying to explore that, and we have allies and supporters of the nomination on the Hill who are looking into that."

Lee's supporters said they will try to maintain public pressure in an effort to get a committee Republican to change his mind, to break the tie. GOP aides called that prospect highly unlikely.

In addition to delaying a final vote Thursday, committee Democrats exercised their right to cut the committee meeting short. But the two-hour session left plenty of time for sharp exchanges over the topic of affirmative action.

"If you really think those laws are wrong, vote to change them," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the Republican members. "You have the numbers. You have the majorities in the House and Senate."

Only one Republican indicated support for Lee, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. He said his party's approach to civil rights hurt its chances in last year's presidential election and defeating Lee "will make it harder for us to elect a Republican president in 2000."

Hatch and the eight other Republicans objected to Lee's support of a legal challenge to California's Proposition 209, the voter-approved initiative that essentially outlaws affirmative action in the state.

An appeals court rejected the challenge and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review that ruling.

They also questioned whether Lee would sufficiently enforce Supreme Court rulings that narrow the use of race-based government programs. They said Lee would use the Justice Department to force small businesses to alter their hiring practices or face expensive lawsuits.&lt;